Are Service Dogs Allowed On Army Post
One solar day this spring, Army Specialist David Bandrowsky, 27, played Russian roulette with his .38 revolver.
Bandrowsky planned to end his life, which had been at turns unbearable since he returned from a 16-month deployment in Iraq in 2008. He had been diagnosed with mail service-traumatic stress disorder, a traumatic encephalon injury and low as a result of his combat experience.
Right before he pulled the trigger, his service dog, Benny, jumped upward and knocked the gun out of his hand.
"He saved my life," Bandrowsky said.
Benny was not trained for that scenario, but the eighteen-calendar month-old Shepherd-hound mix has been taught to, among other tasks, push Bandrowsky away from crowds, wake him if he removes a sleep apnea mask at night and nudge him into a petting session if he seems on the verge of a panic set on.
Last fall, Benny was prescribed to Bandrowsky by a mental health counselor at Fort Elation in El Paso, Texas, where he is stationed. Bandrowsky has received counseling and drug therapy and undergone in-patient mental wellness treatment twice. It is Benny, though, that gets Bandrowsky through each day. He was paired with Benny in November and feels unsafe if the dog is not at his side.
But Bandrowsky may lose permission to accept Benny at Fort Bliss because of an Regular army policy implemented in January.
That policy, which limits how soldiers tin can get service dogs, created a regulatory system that critics worry might put the lives of soldiers recovering from physical injuries and mental illness at risk.
In some cases, local posts have issued their own guidelines in addition to the Regular army'south policy, and soldiers study existence harassed by beau soldiers as well equally higher-ranking officers for having a service dog.
"They're trying to make information technology so difficult that it can't be done," said Bob Thorowgood, who runs Hounds2Heroes, a service dog program, and has placed service dogs with soldiers at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
'They aren't like normal pets'
Before Jan, service dogs were permitted on Regular army posts every bit per the American Disabilities Human activity (ADA), which requires businesses to permit people with disabilities to enter with service animals. Service dogs had frequently been prescribed past mental health counselors or doctors to perform specific tasks for injured soldiers, the majority of whom remain agile-duty, but are transitioning through a medical retirement process.
While the ADA does not impose national standards on preparation, the new Regular army policy stipulates that dogs must now exist provided by organizations approved by Assistance Dogs International (ADI). That umbrella organisation certifies local companies and non-profits according to its own criteria, but does not have affiliated chapters in 18 states. Soldiers who want a service dog in a state without an ADI-affiliated organisation, such as Louisiana, Montana or Georgia, would have to seek assistance elsewhere.
The policy likewise requires that soldiers offset seek approval for a service dog from their commander. Eligibility would be considered by a console of health-intendance professionals, including a primary intendance doctor, physical therapist and mental health advisor.
Fewer than 60 active-duty soldiers accept service dogs at Ground forces bases around the country, estimates Maria Tolleson, a spokeswoman for the Ground forces Medical Control, the agency that issued the new policy.
The agency was developing a new policy early this yr, Tolleson says, when a six-year-old male child in Oak Grove, Ky., was fatally mauled off-post by a domestic dog belonging to an Army service member at Fort Campbell. The fauna was reportedly a service canis familiaris. The incident occurred on January 29 and the new policy was issued the next twenty-four hour period.
The policy is under review, and representatives of the Army Medical Control met in early on May to discuss the changes.
Debbie Kandoll, who is based in Las Cruces, Northward.One thousand., attended the meeting and has been a vocal critic of the policy, saying that its requirements are prohibitive. Kandoll has placed more than 40 service dogs with soldiers at Fort Elation through her organization Grand*A*S*H: Mutts Assisting Soldier Heroes. She believes the policy doesn't acknowledge how instrumental service dogs can be to injured soldiers.
"We're talking near disabled Americans who are broken, who are on their way out of the Army and trying to put their lives back together again," she said. "They are trying to achieve a new normal."
The policy means Thorowgood and Kandoll, who are not affiliated with ADI, can no longer provide their services to agile-duty soldiers. Neither charges soldiers for thorough training programs or for matching them with an animal, and say they have not received complaints about their service dogs misbehaving.
Sharan L. Wilson, executive director of Liberty Service Dogs (FSD) of America, Inc., an ADI-affiliated service dog organization in Englewood, Colo., believes the Army policy is an attempt to address problems with unqualified service dog providers. She said an official at Fort Carson, likewise in Colorado, chosen her recently later a soldier there paid $x,000 for a service domestic dog that was a iii-calendar month-old puppy. When the soldier brought the canis familiaris into a commander's office, information technology urinated on the floor.
The Army has to run across the professionalism of the service dogs to empathise that they aren't like normal pets, Wilson says. It takes half dozen to nine months for her organization to fully train a service domestic dog and that is followed past a ii-week class for the owner as well equally an observation period when the trainer visits the dog's new habitation.
FSD, which relies on donations and grants, places nigh 35 dogs a year at no cost to the soldier; there are 64 people on the organization's waiting listing. Many of the requests FSD receives are from the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Fort Carson.
"The service dogs aren't a silver bullet, simply in the right situation, they really are making a deviation," Wilson said. "These dogs are the things that are keeping these guys from committing suicide."
Life has become 'hell'
Since the policy was issued, some posts have written their own rules. At Fort Bliss, a policy published on April four stated that soldiers must now exhaust all other handling options earlier seeking a service dog. They also must submit a command approval letter to the review console in addition to other documents. Soldiers who had service dogs prior to the new policy are now required to provide several documents, including a memo from a medical professional documenting at to the lowest degree three tasks that the service canis familiaris can perform to assist with specific disabilities.
Bandrowsky says he has non yet been able to provide that document in particular as his off-post mental health advisor was not permitted to write the letter. As a event, he doesn't know if he'll be able to keep Benny.
Dennis R. Swanson, a public affairs officer at Fort Bliss, told msnbc.com that no service dogs have been removed from their owners. "We're just bringing all the service dogs into compliance," Swanson said. "If [a soldier'southward] canis familiaris is not in compliance, so nosotros'll work with them to get a domestic dog that is in compliance."
Even if Bandrowsky is able to keep Benny, he says that having a service dog has subjected him to harassment.
When he joins unit formations, one sergeant will whistle and bawl at Benny. Per the Fort Bliss policy, if a service domestic dog is confusing, a commander tin forbid its presence.
Another sergeant makes derogatory remarks virtually Bandrowsky'south demand to bring Benny into his office. Since the policy came down, Bandrowsky says, his life has get "hell."
Specialist Blake Hilson, as well at Fort Bliss, says he is routinely hassled for having his service dog, Bella, on post. Hilson, who was injured during basic preparation in Feb 2010 and hemorrhaged iv discs in his back, uses Bella for support if his legs give out, to help him upwardly stairs and to go upward.
"Soldiers often charge me of falsifying all my injuries and that I just want to bring my pet to work," Hilson, 24, said. Recently, a higher-ranking soldier walked by Hilson and Bella as they stood against a wall and kneed the canis familiaris in the confront. Hilson believes the action was deliberate.
Swanson said any harassment of a soldier is "confronting Army policy and Army doctrine."
Both Hilson and Bandrowsky are going through the medical retirement process, which can have more than a year. They feel the harassment may be designed to pressure them out sooner by snapping or overreacting. If they are discharged dishonorably, they will lose lifetime healthcare and pension benefits.
Having a service canis familiaris "is almost the same matter equally having a cane or wheelchair -- you're looked at equally existence the weak one in the herd," Hilson said. "They see that as physically weak, but besides mentally weak considering I need a companion 24 hours a day."
'It's a harassment thing'
These anecdotes practise not surprise Thorowgood, who runs Hounds2Heroes in White Plains, Ky.
Thorowgood estimates he placed virtually twenty service dogs with active-duty soldiers at Fort Campbell who were going through the medical retirement process. In February, the postal service issued its own rules, specifically forbidding service dogs in transition units for badly injured soldiers. Approval for a service dog, according to the policy, volition only happen afterwards a soldier "reaches their highest level of independence and is living off post."
Thorowgood had heard from an injured soldier who was not permitted to ride the shuttle bus on post with a service dog. 1 soldier with PTSD and TBI in the warrior transition unit of measurement who got a service dog and was trying to assistance others do then was pressured to stop.
"It's a harassment affair," said Thorowgood, an Air Forcefulness veteran. "To meet these people, the way they suffer where they can't go out in public and then they can when they have a dog -- it'southward important me to keep doing what I'grand doing."
Though the Army policy remains under review, other posts, including Fort Hood and Fort Carson, are considering implementing their own policies.
Bandrowsky expects to learn presently if he tin keep Benny, but the possibility of losing him is catastrophic.
"I will go chaptered out before I requite Benny up," Bandrowsky said, referring to a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge. "I'll give my [medical retirement] upwardly before I give Benny upwards. Considering if I give Benny upwardly — I can't."
Jason Strachman Miller contributed to this report.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Wellness Journalism Fellow. Follow her on Twitter here.
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Are Service Dogs Allowed On Army Post,
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/controversial-army-policy-makes-it-difficult-soldiers-get-service-dogs-flna812980
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